Holocaust Museum… A View from the Inside

I just read this really moving email from Greg Mitchell’s daughter. Mitchell is the editor of E&P magazine, a personal favorite. His daughter, Jeni, worked at the museum for a year or so as a scheduling coordinator during its launch. The whole thing can be found at the Huffington Post, but she talks about the high volume of threats they received, the extraordinary security measures that were taken to safeguard the workers and visitors and then ends with this incredibly poignant bit:

Why do people keep working at places that are under threat? Because they’re so important, and because we love working there. I never met a person who went through the whole museum who wasn’t deeply, deeply affected by it. That makes all the craziness worthwhile.

Yes, there were people who hated us. They might act upon it; but what can you do? Run away? No. A small number of people wished us ill. A huge number of people were enduringly affected by their visit. There was no contest.

My co-workers there were immensely talented, intelligent, funny, brave and audacious. Many of them still work there, and I can only imagine what they are going through right now. Do they still think it’s worth the risk to work there? I’m going to guess the answer is yes.

I never knew Stephen Johns, but he sounds like many of the security officers I knew then – friendly, helpful, always alert but unfailingly polite. I can’t help but think that when he saw that old man coming toward the door, he thought: Here’s a survivor, or a veteran, someone to be treated with special respect.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, I’m just pretty upset about this, and feeling mournful that the price to be paid for an Obama presidency seems to be an epidemic of well-armed lunatics.”